The International Cricket Council Board during the teleconferencing meeting on Thursday will also take a call on the ICC T20 World Cup 2020, scheduled for October-November this year.
A deferment in the T20 World Cup dates is inevitable as host Cricket Australia is not prepared to stage the event in wake of the prevailing COVID-19 pandemic. The bigger question is if not as per original schedule this year, then what could be the likely dates for the ICC T20 World Cup 2020.
There was a speculation that the T20 World Cup in Australia can be rescheduled in February-March next year, just before the Indian Premier League 2021. Though a final decision will only be made tomorrow, news agency ANI has quoted an ICC spokesperson as saying that the Australia edition of the T20 World Cup may now be staged in 2022.
India is slated to host the next edition of the T20 World Cup in 2021.
The deferment of the T20 World Cup Australia won’t just mean that the Board of Control for Cricket in India will not have to deal with a situation of two editions of the multi-national event in the same year. The BCCI will also benefit majorly by way of getting a window to stage the Indian Premier League 2020.
The decision to defer the T20 World Cup by several months in February-March next year, just ahead of the IPL 2021, would mean back to back two premier T20 tournaments. That would certainly hurt the interest of the host broadcaster. Star Sports is the biggest monetary contributor to both the events for being the host broadcaster of the IPL and the ICC.
An overdose of T20 cricket would also dent the other commercial prospects and broadcast ratings of the T20 World Cup. These factors convincingly go against rescheduling the World Cup in February-March.
With the next edition of the tournament slated for October-November in India, the ICC will have fewer convenient options than deferring this year’s tournament to 2022 with Australia retaining the hosting rights.